Earlier this week, Bill O'Reilly said, after a rant about the evils of Planned Parenthood, that he might be wrong but that he's "very rarely wrong." That bit of bombastic bloviation is both amusing and ironic given that Bill was wrong on several statements that he made during that segment of The Factor which was heavy on the Sandra Fluke slut shaming. So seeing that fact checking is all the rage and I love to be au courant, let's do a little fact checking to see just how wrong Bill was.

We will be grading O'Reilly according to this score: 1 loofah if he's only slightly off base; 2 loofahs if the information isn't totally conclusive; loofahs on fire if the comment is batshit crazy.

During his perfunctory and now routine Sandra Fluke attack, he said that "the majority of Americans simply don't want to pay for it, OK, George. They don't want to pay for Sandra Fluke's lifestyle choices whatever they may be. I'm in that camp and if you're gonna tell me that I gotta pay for Sandra Fluke's birth control, I'm gonna tell you that's an extremist position."

Fact - Sandra Fluke was not demanding that Bill O'Reilly and the American taxpayers pay for "her" birth control. In fact, she never once alluded to her "lifestyle" and for all Bill knows she might not even be taking birth control. She supports the HHS birth control mandate which allows women to receive free birth control as part of their health care insurance which many women are already paying for. But Bill and his right wing pals continue to create a false narrative that the taxpayers are going to be providing free birth control for all women.

Rating - Loofahs on Fire

Fact - In the above quote, Bill said that "Americans don't want to pay for Sandra Fluke's lifestyle choices." In addition to slut shaming, Bill seems to be saying that Americans don't approve of the birth control mandate. The data on this is mixed. Kaiser Family Poll, 63% of Americans support the new federal requirement. A CBS/NY Times poll, however, shows that only 40% support it. But another USA Today poll shows 55% support the mandate.

Rating - 2 loofahs

During Bill's screed about how evil it is that tax dollars are going to Planned Parenthood because they do abortions (Bill never had a problem with tax dollars paying for bombs that killed lots of post-born Americans and Iraqis!) he said that he would fine if Planned Parenthood were "funded like Catholic charities, by individuals who believe in Planned Parenthood's mission."

Fact - Bill didn't mention that no taxpayer dollars go to the abortion part of Planned Parenthood. But it is true that they receive government funding so just one loofah here. What is not true is that Catholic Charities relies exclusively on private donations. If Bill was talking about charities connected to the Catholic Church, they a whole lot of taxpayer cash - more than $650,000 in fact. If he's talking about "Catholic Charities," they raked in a cool $2.9 billion of taxpayer cash in 2010. As said on the National Catholic Register, "This one charity, in other words, collected more in public funds alone than all the country's dioceses spent."

Rating - flaming loofahs!

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You are absolutely wrong. By Obamacare mandating ALL insurance policies include birth control coverage, anyone with a policy is subsidizing others who use the coverage. Why does a 65-year old women need birth control or related coverages? She does not, yet her policy includes it and therefore the rate is higher than it would be without. Nor do I think anyone else should subsidize Viagra for men.
Since Planned Parenthood receives government funds, they are subsidized. Whether or not they specifically earmark government funds for abortions or not is splitting hairs. Be honest, please. Every dollar received from the government is a dollar more they have to spend on abortions.
In fact, is it not true that Planned Parenthood does not even offer mammograms in their clinics, even though this service is often touted as a major part of their “business?” how many “loofahs” do they receive from you for that lie?

On a previous thread, you’d suggested that this problem of conscientious objection against contraception would be solved if people got their health insurance through their church. As a drawback, you mentioned the need to create alternative churches.

Cute. I’d only like to add that the numbers of women getting their insurance through the Catholic church would be considerably lower than the total number of women who show up at Mass. Catholics throughout the world are ignoring the teachings of the (all-male) hierarchy on that one.

If Bill-O is paying for my birth control, then by his logic I am paying for his Viagra and probably his penis pump as well! This must stop. It is completely against my beliefs that old men keep trying to have sex long after God made their parts stop working.